The 16th annual Senior Living & Housing Awareness Week kicks off with a day of talks exploring a variety of housing issues for seniors. Also, more than 60 exhibits by senior housing and care providers. For a complete schedule of workshops (preregistration) and open houses May 2-10 at senior housing communities around the county, see med.umich.edu/seniors/events.
8:30 a.m.-3 p.m., Marriott Ypsilanti at Eagle Crest, 1275 S. Huron. Free. 998-9336. [map]

We are excited to open for the season May 2nd and Waterloo recreation. We offer horseback trail rides for ages 6 to 106 on weekends/ Fridays and Saturdays 10 am till dusk and Sundays 10 am till 4:00.Come see Michigan like nature intended, from the back of a horse. Nothing will be more relaxing this season.Please call or email for reservations.
Waterloo Recreation Stables, 12891 Trist Road, Grass Lake, 49240. $35 per one hour ride.. 734-637-4457. srichardson@horsenaroundstablesatwaterloo.comwww.horsenaroundstablesatwaterloo.com [map]

This well-known North Korean refugee and activist gives a talk. The Everyone's Free Club at Washtenaw International High School is hosting a fundraising dinner to help raise money to save North Korean refugees and set them up in a supportive school in South Korea. At the dinner, which costs $10 per person or $30 per family of four (and all money raised goes to the Everyone's Free Organization), there will be Korean food, entertainment, and a special guest of honor. Shin Don-Hyuk, one of the only people to be born in and escape from a North Korean work camp, will be attending the dinner and giving a short talk. It is really a once in a lifetime opportunity for people in southeast Michigan to meet and hear from someone who has really experienced some of the horrors in North Korea.
Washtenaw International High School, 510 Emerick Street, Ypsilanti. $10. jyoung@wihi.orghttp://www.everyonesfree.com/ [map]

High school students perform Shakespeare's the Tempest--amazing sets and costumes. Dr. Russell has done a fantastic job with his students over many years of performing Shakespeare.
Whitmore Lake high school. $5 (families, $25). 810-225-8741. campionplayers@gmail.com

All invited to watch as many as 20 3-member teams representing local organizations, nonprofits, and businesses vie for a trophy. (All encouraged to enter a team.) Emcee is U-M drama professor Malcolm Tulip. Doors open at 6:30 p.m. with drinks, hors d'oeuvres, and music by the Community High Jazz Band.
7 p.m., Washtenaw Community College Morris Lawrence Bldg., 4800 E. Huron River Dr. Tickets $40 in advance only by emailing info@familylearninginstitute.org or by phone; $50 at the door. 995-6816. [map]

A May 2 opening reception for this AADL exhibit (May 2-June 23) features welcoming remarks by AADL director Josie Parker and Museum of the American Printing House for the Blind (Louisville) director Michael Hudson, who also gives a talk on the exhibit in the AADL multipurpose room at 2 p.m. on May 4. The May 2 reception also includes music by harpist Deborah Gabrion and refreshments.
7-8:30 p.m. (Apr. 2) & 2-3:30 p.m. (Apr. 4), AADL 3rd floor, 343 S. Fifth Ave. Free. 327-8301. [map]

May 2-4. Henry Russell directs a cast of area homeschooled teens in Shakespeare's culminating work, a visionary romance set on a magical island ruled by the enigmatic but benevolent sorcerer Prospero and his beautiful daughter Miranda. Prospero is in fact the exiled duke of Milan, who conjures a storm that shipwrecks his old enemies upon his island. The Tempest is filled with verse and song (including the famous "Full fathom five") and contains some of Shakespeare's most gorgeously haunting poetry. With original incidental music by Dan Heffernan.
7 p.m. (Fri. & Sat.) & 3 p.m. (Sun.), Whitmore Lake High School, 8877 Whitmore Lake Rd. $5 (family, $25) in advance via email to campionplayers@gmail.com and at the door. 239-3476. [map]

Apr. 25-27 and May 2 & 4. Ryan Vasquez directs students in Jonathan Larson's Tony- and Pulitzer Prize-winning 1996 musical, based on Puccini's La Bohème, about an impoverished community of artists in the East Village living under the shadow of AIDS. It features an inventive rock score with intricate choral work and dexterous lyrics.
7:30 p.m. (Apr. 25 & 26 and May 2) & 2 p.m. (Apr. 27 & May 4), PHS, 601 W. Stadium. Tickets $15 (students, seniors age 65 & over, and PHS staff, $10) in advance at showtix4u.com. ptguild.org. [map]

This veteran singer-songwriter from Lynn, Massachusetts, a Green Wood favorite, writes sharp-witted songs about everyday life that blend pathos, humor, and biting satire, and his live shows feature a lot of impromptu storytelling and comedy. His fans include Christine Lavin and Livingston Taylor, and he's released 4 acclaimed CDs, including the recent Winning Streak. A big hit in earlier Green Wood appearances.
8 p.m., FUMC, Green Wood Church, 1001 Green Rd. at Glazier Way. $17 (kids 10 & under, 2 for the price of 1) in advance and at the door. 665-8558. [map]

Highly regarded folkie singer-songwriter from Milwaukee who is known for his complex guitar work, expressively playful vocals, and dark, vividly rendered lyrics. Acoustic Guitar called his 2004 CD Kitchen Radio a "moody, jazz-inflected" collection that is "engaging, down to earth, and utterly original." Tonight he celebrates the release of his new CD, Silver Ladder. 8 p.m., The Ark, 316 S. Main. Tickets $15 in advance at the Michigan Union Ticket Office (mutotix.com), theark.org, and at the door. To charge by phone, call 763-TKTS. [map]

Performance by this veteran local jazz pianist who is known for his command of a wide range of styles, from blues and bebop to funk and avant-garde.
8 p.m., Webster Church, Webster Church Rd. at Farrell (between Joy & North Territorial), Webster Twp. $20 suggested donation. 426-5115.

This ensemble of leading female early musicians from Michigan performs works written for the original Concerto delle Donne, a 16th-century ensemble of highly trained female musicians. The program includes works by Monteverdi, Marenzio, Gesualdo, Aleotti, Cozzolani, and others. Musicians include vocalists Jennifer Ellis Kampani, Deborah Friauff, and Lorna Young Hildebrandt and instrumentalists Kiri Tollaksen, Debra Lonergan, and Pamela Ruiter-Feenstra. Preceded at 7 p.m. by a lecture on the program.
8 p.m., St. Andrew's Episcopal Church, 306 N. Division. Tickets $25 (members, $22; students, $5) in advance at AcademyOfEarlyMusic.org, Nicola's Books (2513 Jackson), & by phone, and at the door. 478-6421. [map]

Apr 17-20, 25, & 26 and May 2 & 3 (different locations). Isaac Ellis directs this local ensemble in his adaptation of Pedro Calderon de la Barca's 17th-century Spanish Baroque masterpiece, a philosophical allegory about the human condition. The action revolves around a fictional prince of Poland, who is imprisoned as an infant by his father, the king, in response to a dire astrological prophecy. When the king has a change of heart and frees his son, the prince goes on a rampage, and the king imprisons him again, persuading him that his short-lived freedom was all a dream. Jeff Miller, David Widmayer, Lauren Megan McCarthy, Joseph McDonald, Mouse Courtois, Stevert Davenport, Jessica Feathers, Cydney Heed, and Jenna Hinton.
8 p.m., Riverside Arts Center (Apr. 17-20), 76 N. Huron, Ypsilanti, and Ann Arbor Civic Theatre Studio (Apr. 25 & 26 and May 2 & 3), 322 W. Ann. Tickets $15 (students, $5) in advance via email to BTEreservations@gmail.com and at the door. 904-7049. [map]

May 1-3. Brian Cox directs local actors in this collection of 12 monologues, each written by different local writer, that revolve around 2 alarming incidents in the history of a small town: the disappearance of a baby and a deadly fire. Cast: David Galido, Pat Collins, Mary Elizabeth Parker, David Angus, Margie Bovie, Peter Knox, Ann Stofflet, Holly Kreag, Linnae Caurdy, Kelly Rose Voigt, Marc Holland, Denene Pollock, Bob Galardi.
8 p.m., The Mix Studio Theater, 8 N. Washington, Ypsilanti. Tickets $12 in advance at fromaroundhereproductions.org; $15 at the door. 944-2787. [map]

Every Thurs.-Sun., Apr 10-May 4. Paul Hopper directs this local professional company in Larry Shue's witty Obie-winning farce about a shy Englishman who goes on a fishing vacation in rural Georgia and pretends to be from an exotic, unspecified foreign country and to speak no English. However, the locals all begin to confide in the mysterious stranger, unleashing a blackly hilarious series of events involving the devious local minister, his redneck associate, and even the Ku Klux Klan. Cast: Adrian Diffey, Fran Potasnik, Lori Pelham, Jess Alexander, Kathryn Mahard, Elliott Styles.
7 p.m. (Thurs.), 8 p.m. (Fri. & Sat.), & 3 p.m. (Sat., Sun., & Apr. 17), Encore, 3126 Broad St., Dexter. Tickets $32 (seniors age 60 & older, $30; youth age 17 & under and groups of 10 or more, $28) in advance at theencoretheatre.org and at the door. Tickets are $6 less for Thurs. & all matinees. 268-6200. [map]